I am seriously on fire with the socks. To be honest, I have been watching seasons 1-3 of Fringe on my computer (bought the instant videos on Amazon) and that leaves me with a lot of time for knitting that I can put on autopilot.

Do I even need to tell you what pattern I’m using? It is, again, Judy Gibson’s You’re Putting Me On Toe Up Sock pattern. And since I have a certain way that I do all the things in the pattern, I thought I’d give you some more details.

The Toe

I use a figure-8 cast on for the toe. It’s a little tricky when you first learn it, but it’s also really cool. I learned it first when I knit HelloYarn’s Top Down Bonnet for Maggie way back when (Oh my, that link has a picture of Maggie from 2007! You must click it!).

I’ve refined the way I knit the cast on. Here’s what I do. I loop the yarn around the needles (using two needles). Then I knit across each needle (now I’m using three needles). Most instructions will have you begin the increases on the next round, while also dividing the stitches between four needles. I do those things on separate rounds. First, I knit one round and divide the stitches evenly between four needles (so I am actually using five needles). Then on the next round I begin the increases. I find the work is less fiddly when I do it this way, and that makes me a happier knitter.

For the toe, I use a KFB increase. When the work is so tiny and fiddly at the beginning, the KFB is the easiest for me to handle, and it’s relatively quick. Here’s how I do it:

Needle 1: KFB, k to end of needle.
Needle 2: K to last 2 sts, KFB, K1.
Needle 3: Same as Needle 1.
Needle 4: Same as Needle 2.

The Bind Off

Getting a loose bind off at the top edge of a toe-up sock is crucial. I use the same one every time, and like Grumperina, the first time I used it was on the cast off edge of my Leaf Lace Shawl (again with the old knits! 2007!).  I don’t know what Evelyn Clark calls this bind off, but I’ve seen something called a Russian Bind Off that is very similar.  What I do differently is that I don’t slip stitches back to the left hand needle.

I described the bind off like this in the pattern for my toe up Celery Socks:

K1, *K1, insert L needle tip into the front of the 2 sts from left to right and knit them together from this position.* Repeat between *s until 1 st remains. Cut yarn and fasten off.

It is easy and effective. You need not change to a larger needle, either. If anything, you work this cast off just as tight as any other stitch. It’s naturally Very Stretchy!

The yarn I used for these socks is Cascade Heritage 150 and I loooooove it. It’s technically sport weight, but it’s on the thin side if you ask me. But the socks are cushy. I went back to the yarn store where I bought the yarn, to buy more, and they didn’t have any. And instead of the yarn being sold out because it was super popular, I think they didn’t restock it because nobody was really crazy about it. Oh, well.

Best part of these socks? Jerry loves them! He’s been wearing them around the house, and that makes this knitter very happy, indeed.

More info about pattern and yarn for these socks on Ravelry.

Since I wasn’t finished with Fringe when I finished these socks, I started another pair. Trekking XXL (one of my favorite sock yarns!) in pumpkiny colors!

I wouldn’t believe how big Maggie’s feet are except that I just knit her pretty big socks and they fit. I estimated her foot size when she was away at school and I thought maybe her feet were about 5″ around and 6″ long. WRONG. Her feet are more than 7″ around and 7.25″ long. The socks seem too big when I am looking at them but they fit her perfectly. I am so confused. When did she become not a baby?

It was gorgeous outside today after school, so she played with her new pocket knife at the picnic table and posed her feet for some pictures. It was cute. I love the pictures.

As much as I’d like to deny it, Jerry has big feet, too. If not big for his age, at least bigger than I expect them to be. I am taking no chances with him, so I had him trace the outline of his foot and measure the circumference of his foot and ankle. He picked out the yarn (blue and gray from the stash, good stuff) and hopefully everyone will have toasty warm toes if, by chance, it ever gets cold here in North Carolina.

More information about yarn and pattern can be found on Ravelry.

There is knitting! I always try to have at least one pair of socks in progress, so that if I’m running out the door I have something to grab. I started these socks forever ago, but finally yesterday finished the first sock of the pair! It’s a very pretty sock. I fully intend to knit its mate quickly and be finished in a few days. Maybe I’ll surprise even myself and do just that!

The yarn is Zauberball Crazy color 2092 I think, and it’s very reminiscent of the good old Trekking XXL colors that I don’t think they produce anymore. Like these socks that now belong to my mother-in-law.

The pattern I’m using is my favorite sock pattern ever, Judy Gibson’s You’re Putting Me On!  I just counted on Ravelry and I have 17 projects listed using this pattern. You would think that I wouldn’t need to carry around the pattern anymore, and you’d be wrong. I keep the pattern in my little sock bag with whatever pair of socks I’m knitting. Mostly I refer to the pattern for the heel turn.

What’s more, if you were to go into my filing cabinet and locate the knitting pattern folders, and then find the one labeled “socks” you would find at least 4 other copies of the same exact pattern. Sometimes during a knitting emergency, you can’t waste time locating the ONE copy of the  pattern for which you need to cast on. You need to print out the pattern immediately so you can CAST ON THIS SECOND. You know?

Anyway. These socks are knit over 72 stitches – a perfect fit for me or my Mom or my mother-in-law. It’s good to keep them all guessing. No one ever knows who I’m knitting socks for (even me!). After the toe I started working in garter rib. That means that one round is KNIT and the next round is K2,P2, and you repeat those two rounds. Near the cuff, I began working a plain 2×2 rib.

There is one other knitting project I worked on earlier in the summer. It had so much promise! But I messed up and then gave up. I should find the bag I stuffed it in and blog about it. Yes. That’s what I’ll do.

Like I said in my last post, I’m working on my first Cookie A pattern. This is a new pattern from her new book, Knit.Sock.Love. (as opposed to patterns in the book that have been previously published). I purchased the print and digital versions, and printed out the pattern for Cusp before the book arrived.

Then the book arrived, and although it was all the same as in the PDF that I downloaded (I think – I did not go through page by page), the book was spectacular.  My only complaint is that I don’t have enough solid colors of sock yarn in my stash to knit all the patterns right away. So that’s not really a complaint at all, you see.

Following a pattern by an amazing designer and superb pattern writer is very inspiring for this designer. I see this slump of mine as less of a bummer, and more of a learning experience. Thanks, Cookie A!

And that brings me to Thanksgiving! If you’re celebrating tomorrow, I hope you have a great time with your family and friends.  I’ll be busy today baking a few pies, resting my back after throwing it out while trying to find the right size turkey, and getting ready to host our very first Thanksgiving dinner!

I’m doing something special here on Friday, so check back then to find out all the details. Gobble gobble gobble gobble…

If you didn’t win (I’m so sorry!) I hope you’ll consider ordering Phoebe’s Sweater anyway. If only so you can have a moment like this with your daughter/son, neice/nephew, favorite kid:

She’s reading it (but not really because she doesn’t read in the traditional sense of the word). She’s flipping through and adding her own words. So cute!

The winner of the giveaway is Cheryl, who was chosen by Jerry from slips of paper that were in a bag, contacted by email and left this comment:

Congrats Cheryl!

In other news, I have had an epiphany regarding socks. See, my usual sock knitting pattern is the toe-up You’re Putting Me On pattern by Judy Gibson (see my 16 projects using this pattern here). I love toe-up socks because I have big feet, and knitting socks toe-up makes me feel confident that I won’t run out of yarn. I also love a simple 2×2 rib, because I can knit most of the socks without thinking too much.

But then I knit the Socktoberfest Mystery Socks. They weren’t toe up and they weren’t a simple rib. And yet I really, really enjoyed knitting them. I think I had some notion that anything other than ribbing would require a lot more attention, but that simply was not the case. Sure, I needed the pattern close at hand, but most of the time I had enough attention to spare for watching TV or whatever else was going on around me.

Pattern: TTL Mystery Sock 2010 by Kirsten Kapur.
Yarn: The Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga! <- It’s supposed to have an exclamation mark.

With that small revelation and a whole pair of socks under my belt, I decided, on a whim, to buy Cookie A’s new book, Knit.Sock.Love, with the digital version and see if there were any socks that spoke to me. There were many, but I settled on Cusp, printed out the necessary pages, and cast on.

I found that I could knit these socks without my brain exploding (crazy, I know) and I have already finished the first sock and started the second. GO ME.

This is my first time knitting a Cookie A. pattern and I must say, it is brilliant. Yes, I’m late to the party, but wow. She really writes the heck out a pattern.

Nonetheless, I still worry continuously about running out of yarn and wonder what I would do if that actually happens. But for now, I’m enjoying knitting a wonderful pattern, with a wonderful (but sadly discontinued) yarn, and getting a whole pair of socks out of the deal.

The pattern was my very first experience with a Mystery Knitalong! Kirsten has been doing a mystery sock during October, ahem, excuse me, during SOCKtober, for a few years now. This pattern, TTL Mystery Sock 2010, was fun and easy; a perfect match for the yummy skein of Skinny Bugga that I got at SAFF in 2009. The color is Tomato Frog, and very hard to capture with my amateur photog skillz.

If I can keep myself from casting on for all the ideas and plans floating around in my head (That’ll be hard because I already cast on for new slippers for Gerald), then I might finish these very soon!  Can’t wait to see how the yarn and pattern look after blocking!

In giveaway news…

I printed out all the entries (over 100!) from the Stitch ‘n Bitch Superstar Knitting giveaway post, cut them up into individual bits of paper and had Maggie draw three out of the proverbial hat. The winners are:

• Lelah
• Linda
• Ivy

All three have been contacted, and will receive their books soon! Thanks to everyone who entered. I wish I could send a book to each of you!

I feel like we’ve been on giveaway overdrive, but get this. I have another giveaway coming soon!

• I love wool.
• I love garter stitch.
• I love colorwork.

If I had to choose a favorite, I would be at a loss. I equally enjoy all three of those things. When it came time to design my new pattern, I was able to combine all three loves and the result is balanced, simple, and wearable (another three things I love in knitting).

The pattern is Graveyard Socks, and the idea came about when I read about the Socks Revived Contest on the Exercise Before Knitting blog. This is my entry for the contest.

Knit from the cuff down, and combining elements of colorwork, plain stockinette stitch and a reinforced garter stitch heel, the socks are a good balance of “I need to pay attention to the chart right now” and “All I want to do is watch TV while I knit”.

The decidedly macabre motif was scribbled on graph paper, then transferred to my charting software while Jerry was watching over my shoulder. It came time to save the file, and I mumbled something about needed a name for the socks. Jerry, who is 7, noticed the similarity of the chart to a graveyard, and the name of the socks was born.

The heels are knit using garter stitch short rows, and two strands of the yarn are held together for extra reinforcement. If you’re worried about garter stitch ridges digging into the bottom of your feet, I urge you to try this technique. The stretchy nature of garter stitch makes for a very comfortable heel.

The toes are French (or at least that’s what Nancy Bush says). There are three lines of decreases, rather than the usual two, and the stitches are gathered at the end instead of woven.  It was the first time I tried this toe shaping, and I really liked it!

My foot model, as usual, was Lisa (here and here, her new education technology blog). I can’t thank her enough for helping me with the photo shoot. I had her climbing under the picnic table (not easy!) and taking directions like: “Try to look more dead.” (see first photo) Thank you, Lisa!

Graveyard Socks – $6

Yarn: Nature Spun Sport
Needles: Size 1 (2.25 mm)
Gauge: 8 sts = 1″ (2.5 cm)
For more specific information please visit the Graveyard Socks page, or the Ravelry page for Graveyard Socks.

You can find more pictures in the Graveyard Socks Flickr Set.

As always, thank you for supporting my designs!!

Yesterday at my mother-in-law’s house, I found a clay bowl filled with the handknit socks that I knit her. It was only surprising because they’re usually on her feet. The story was that she has just washed the socks and they had been hanging on the stove handle, and when she began cooking our dinner she moved them to the bowl.

Noreen taught me how to mend socks, and when these started wearing thin I gave her the leftover yarn and she darned them herself. They are wearing thin in places and are due for another mend.

These were knit in Trekking XXL, color 100. I don’t think they make these colors anymore, which is a damn shame because it is one of the best colors ever for socks. Noreen calls them “the green socks” and they are her favorite.

The others were knit in Lorna’s Laces, and she wears them, too, but prefers the Trekking ones.

The Lorna’s socks haven’t needed mending. The bottoms are fuzzy, but with no apparent holes or weak spots. She owns another pair that were knit in Lion Brand Sock-Ease and of the three pairs, she likes them the least.

I have another pair of socks-in-progress for her, and I really should get to finishing them. No one loves and appreciates their handknit socks more than Noreen. I always say, she would give you the shirt off her back if you asked for it, but she would not ever give away her handknit socks.

Speaking of socks, I’m working on a new design! When Elinor announced her new sock contest, it sounded exciting and I was instantly inspired to take up the pins!  In the next couple of weeks, I should be ready to show you! It’s colorwork!

I keep trying it on her and she has been a great sport. “Are you kniddin’ those socks for ME?” she asks with anticipation. Yes, baby, I am knitting these for you.

All I need is to find some 3 year old sized biker boots to wear them with. That would be the shit. Then she would wear the outfit for 5 minutes before growing out of it.  No, that’s not true. She’ll be able to wear it this winter and it’ll be awesome. I can’t wait. But first I have to find pint-sized biker boots.

The yarn is called Gjestal Baby Ull and I can type it but I can’t pronounce it. Don’t you hate that? There are many names of yarn that I simply avoid saying in public…Araucania, Malabrigo, others. I used to not know how to say Koigu but now I do.

Coy. Goo.

Point being, nothing. The unpronounceable yarn is really, really nice. 100% superwash merino. I’m knitting it at 8 sts to the inch on a US 1.5 needle (that’s 2.5 mm). The needles are, I think, Crystal Palace bamboo and they’re sturdy and smooth. I would consider them my favorite set of bamboo dpns in size 1.5.

These stockings (or this stocking) feel like an in between project…though I’m not sure what I’m between. I’m considering making Maggie a sweater to end all sweaters, so maybe I’m between Jerry’s striped sweater and the next sweater.

Sweaters are projects, stocking(s) are just little things I knit.

I’m not a fan of the celery. I used to, with great caution, pick every bit of it out of my food. I’ve mellowed somewhat and will eat celery when it appears as it should (cooked – as in a mirepoix) but still, I just don’t like the taste very much.

But the color of celery is pretty, no? These socks I knit, in a color of Lorna’s Laces called Carol Green, are very celery-ish. So when I wrote the pattern up and it came time to give it a name, they screamed CELERY!

I also like that when you say “celery socks” it sounds like “celery stalks.” Yes, I can be easily amused. I’ve been walking around saying it to myself, or sometimes out loud, “socks…stalks…socks…stalks” and pondering the similarities. If you say celery socks fast enough it sounds like celery stalks. Go try it now. See?

I’ve been working on this pattern for! ever! It was such a long time ago that I worked out how to make the short-row garter stitch toe. I’ve knit a bunch of these toes since and I’m in love with this construction. The best part of the garter stitch toe (and heel) is it’s inherent stretchiness, and there is a roomy and comfortable quality to the sock. You really have to knit this for yourself and try it on to see what I’m talking about. You really must.

And now you can!  The pattern is up for sale and you can buy it on Ravelry or click the button on the bottom of the post to get your very own copy of the Celery Socks pattern. The socks are knit toe-up beginning with a crochet provisional cast on that is explained in detail in the pattern. The zigzaggy stitch pattern on the leg really sings with solid or semi-solid yarns.

You can use any fingering weight sock yarn for this pattern, and depending on your gauge, achieve a wide range of sizes. Click the Celery Socks pattern page for more details, or find similar info on the Ravelry pattern page for Celery Socks.

Thank you! (And thanks to Lisa for being a patient and professional foot model; and for putting celery in that salad the other day.)